Suicide deaths present many problems to the medical examiner-coroner who must certify them. These problems produce undetermined amounts of variance in the data reported to the Division of Vital Statistics. The purpose of this study is to identify and quantify the sources and the degree of variance in the coroners' certifications of suicide. Data reported by all coroners for the modes of death of suicide, accident, homicide, and undetermined, by method, will be obtained from the National Center for Health Statistics. Selected demographic data on all counties will be obtained from the Population Laboratory of the University of Southern California. Counties will be ranked on the basis of Direct Standardized rates computed for reported suicides using selected demographic variables. Rankings of counties will also be obtained for suicide-accident, -homicide and -undetermined proportions. A representative sample of counties will be selected for further analysis of the effects of independent demographic factors, such as size of community, crime rates, etc., and organizational and functional characteristics of the coroners' offices, such as training and education of the coroner and laboratory facilities available. Information about the latter will be obtained by telephone interview. The results will be used to develop a set of guidelines and training suggestions for future use by certifying authorities.